Our First Cairn Terrier

Our First Cairn Terrier was Kriston's Shady Lady known to us as Penny who was born 28th February 1984

She was bred on Oudenarde lines on her dam side Pendley Dark Encounter but quite an assortment on the Sire side Crackerjack of Kriston

We were actively showing, breeding and judging GSD's and our girls were then quite young but very interested and "hands on" with the dogs.  Of course they wanted to copy what we were doing and so we started to look for a breed which we felt would suit our family, we didn't want something shy or timid as we were used to a dog with character, having met Marge Rankins little Cairn called Scuff, this was the second breed for us.

Here at 8 weeks our little Penny, she was feisty but so very loving, it was nice to be able to sit a dog on your lap and have a nice cuddle, the GSD's did try but they used to slip off and squash us.

She became a wonderful family pet, loved by everyone, she certainly grew into a small dog with a big dogs attitude, I thought this came from being brought up with GSD's but I now know different of course!!

As Penny became a fully grown member of the family, she became a wonderful house dog, warning of any strangers arriving, but at the same time she was happy being pushed around in a dolls pram by our youngest daughter who now had a real life baby who she could talk to and who responded to her, they were always together.

At 3 years of age Penny was quite a scruffy little girl, of course at this time we knew NOTHING about hand stripping, and she was shown by the girls in full coat with just her feet, ears and tail "trimmed"!!!  Well to be honest I don't think much was actually done to Cairn Terriers in those days, they were shown "naturale".  She managed to get a few rossettes and the girls had great fun - win or lose.

Penny was soloved by everyone, we decided to have a  litter from her, THREE BOYS, our friend had two of the puppies so we only needed to find a home for one, they were all loved and cherrished till the day they died and we kept in touch with them all to the end.  We were sorry not to be able to keep one but at that time living in a residential area with all our GSD's a male was not worth considering at that time.

We had such a wonderful time with our Penny, it was such a great loss when we lost her with cancer of the mamory glands, she was only 12years, most of our GSD's lived to 12 and 14 years and we were really expecting our little terrier to live into her teens but this was not to be.  Penny was not the best of looking Cairn Terriers from a Breed Standard point of view, although her temperament was absolutely "Cairn" but she was a beautiful dog, such a big character she left such a big hole in our hearts.  Pennys ashes along with all our GSD's are burried in our gardens so they are always with us.

R.I.P  

Our Lovely Penny

Always in our Hearts

A wonderful Friend & Companion

1984 - 1994

xxx